Katie Piper revealed that a stranger approached her daughter posing as a boy in a video game.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Katie, 40, said she is now worried for her daughter’s safety after she was playing an online game when another player, using the name of a famous child YouTuber, congratulated her on her score.
They started chatting, but it turned out it was an adult trying to interact with her.
She said: ‘My daughter is ten and she likes to play games online and at my job I use a lot of social media platforms so I thought I was quite clever in advising her on which platforms to use and which not to.
‘We have a family device that she uses under my supervision. She was playing online games and it has a chatbot feature that I thought I had disabled.
Katie Piper Reveals Stranger Approached Her Daughter Posing as a Boy in a Video Game (Photo from May)
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Katie, 40, said she is now worried about her daughters’ safety after she was playing an online game when another player, using the name of a famous child YouTuber, congratulated her on her score (pictured with her two daughters).
“But someone was able to congratulate her on the result she had achieved in that particular match. And that allowed them to talk.
“The person was using the username of a famous YouTuber and got really excited thinking that they were talking to him. And as the conversation progressed, they realized that they were talking to an adult.”
Katie continued: ‘The positive thing was that she came to me and told me that I had done something I shouldn’t have done by using the chat.
“I was really glad she came to see me and we could talk about it. I didn’t reprimand her, I just made sure we talked about it.”
The mother of two shares two daughters with husband Richard James Sutton, to whom she has been married since 2015.
Katie said she now struggles to find a balance between allowing her daughter access to social media and often feeling “mom guilt.”
“I panicked and especially as mothers, we always feel guilty and I thought, ‘Oh no, have I done something wrong and not protected her online?'” she said.
“But I don’t really think I could have done anything differently and it made me realise that it’s something that moves very fast and I need to stay on top of the technology and the games and the things that she’s doing.
The mother of two shares two daughters with husband Richard James Sutton, to whom she has been married since 2015 (pictured)
Katie said she now struggles to find a balance between allowing her daughter access to social media and often feels “mom guilt.”
‘In any area of parenting, completely restricting a child doesn’t work. So I don’t want to isolate her from the modern world because there are different platforms that can be very positive.
‘It contributes to professional prosperity, socialization, education and broadening horizons.
‘I was in school in the 90s, so I basically did my homework on a typewriter, so I was learning with my ten-year-old son.
‘If I’ve ever had to deal with negativity online, it’s been as an adult and I have the resilience and emotional intelligence to be able to deal with it.
Katie, who is now a model and activist, has 1.1 million followers on Instagram but says she still won’t share photos of her daughters until they give their consent.
“I started my Instagram before they were born and I always tried to commit to not retouching or editing photos,” she said.
‘I do share my personal life there and when my children were born I shared a photo of them as babies to say that I had already had my children. But I never felt it necessary or right to share them online.
“It will change when they are 16 or 17, then they will fall in line and I will not stop. Then she can consent to me doing it too.”
Katie, who is now a model and activist, has 1.1 million followers on Instagram. But she said she still won’t share photos of her daughters until they give their consent.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people putting their kids online, there are just things that work differently for different families.”
Katie’s comments come as new research from Virgin Media O2 and Internet Matters reveals parents’ fears of the threat to children from AI and deepfakes.
Up to 75 percent of UK parents and guardians fear the dangers that AI-generated deepfake audio and video pose to their children online1.
However, less than half of people, 42 percent, have talked to their children about online safety and just over a quarter, 26 percent, have no confidence in their ability to protect their children from deepfakes.
Campaign backed by leading charities Action for Children and Good Things Foundation, with brand new guides to help families have safer conversations about safe internet use.